Bum Deal – A permanent bruise on the backside of state education?
COMMENT – A while ago, whilst working in the garden, I pulled enthusiastically at a deeply rooted plant. It gave way much more quickly and easily than I had anticipated, causing me to…
Old Hat? Teaching qualifications are so yesterday.
COMMENT – It’s been a quiet couple of weeks for the education satirist. What with the Olympics and the wonderful stories emerging of chaos and calamity, I’ve felt quite bitter and resentful that…
Trotting About – The truth about schools is stranger than TV fiction
COMMENT – Writers don’t do teachers and schools very well on television, do they? Whether it’s sitcom, soap or drama, any pretence at realism is seen off at the door by realism’s arch…
Roman Seizer – All hail Gove’s classics comedy coming to a school near you!
COMMENT – I decided today that Michael Gove has been avidly reading the pieces I write for SMT and that the result of this is him spending time trying to come up with…
The Pupil Premium – Has it helped?
COMMENT – The introduction of the pupil premium was welcomed by most schools last year. Given that a number of schools in our locality have a high number of children on free school…
Hit and List – A Simple Guide for Budding Education Secretaries
COMMENT – It’s the time that every primary teacher loves, isn’t it? The latest secretary of state for education gets his paws on the national curriculum. Of course, in Gove world, what you…
Pirate Gove? – Staying afloat on the DfE Moral Bankrupt-Sea
COMMENT – There are some things in life that you just have to accept you will never have the chance to do. In my case, the list is very long indeed, but right…
I Spy Two Things Beginning with ‘P’ – Profit and Pay
COMMENT – Stupid ideas from ministers and the Emperor of Ofsted are like pieces of litter on the school canteen floor: leave one lying there and soon it will be joined by many,…
Written in the stars? Social inequality causes are far closer to home Mr. Clegg
COMMENT – It occurred to me the other day that I now have to spend at least twice as much time as I used to on reading various websites for new announcements, pronouncements…
Bad Sports – The dirty tricks undermining state school sports
Weren’t the Olympics marvellous and didn’t Team GB do incredibly well? As a Sheffielder, I swelled with pride when Jess Ennis triumphed in the heptathlon and honked with pleasure at the news that…